Laundry iron



Jan. 3, 1956 c. A. SWANSON LAUNDRY IRON Filed April 22, 1955 WZ W,

United States Patent LAUNDRY IRON Carl Arthur Swanson, Winnetka, Ill.

Application April 22, 1953, Serial No. 350,304

3 Claims. (Cl. 3893) This invention relates to improvements in laundry irons specifically in the structure of the bottom plate on the base of the iron.

Present day hand ironing is accomplished by passing a heated iron over moistened material in order to remove the moisture therefrom to permit smoothing of the material. In most instances, the moisture has been added by sprinkling which can never provide an even distribution of water. Therefore, there is excess moisture on some parts of the material. Some manufactured irons have been provided with grooves in the bottom which merely collect and move the excess moisture over the material in an attempt to provide an even distribution thereon. However, the number of times necessary to pass the iron over the material in order to remove the moisture and press out the wrinkles was still numerous as no means were provided to get rid of the excess moisture which would merely re-enter the material at the dryer places. Other irons have a fiat bottom surface which merely presses the moisture into the cloth and further into the ironing board cover, relying therefore on removing the moisture in the cloth by passing the hot iron again and again over the moist cloth until heat alone has removed the moisture. Therefore of primary importance is not so much the even distribution of moisture, but the quick and efficient removal of the excess.

it is the principal object of this invention to provide a base plate for a pressing iron which will hasten such moisture removal not by redistributing the moisture but by eliminating the excess and thereby arriving at a substantially uniform amount in all parts of the material, allowing thereby a quicker smoothing out and pressing of the article being ironed.

A further object is to provide the working plate or base plate of an iron with indentations connected to the atmosphere for the purpose of permitting the rapid expelling of such excess moisture from the cloth.

Other objects and advantages will appear from the following description, reference being had to the following drawings:

Fig. l is a side elevation of a pressing iron including the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a bottom view of the iron of Fig. 1 showing the particular design of the improved base plate; and

7 2,729,004 Patented Jan. 3, 1956 "ice Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line 3--3 of Fig. 2.

Referring to Fig. 1 an ordinary pressing iron is provided with a handle 4 and base 5. Attached to the base 5 is a bottom plate 6. Any known heating means (not shown) may be employed to heat the iron.

This invention is directed specifically to an improved bottom plate 6. indented in the bottom plate 6 are forward grooves 7 and rear grooves 8 which may be placed in a pattern such as illustrated in Fig. 2. Connecting with the top of said grooves are front transverse passages 9 and rear transverse passages 10 which extend through and to each side of the bottom plate.

As the iron passes over the material, the excess moisture turns to steam which enters the front and rear grooves 7 and 8 and passes quickly to the atmosphere through the front and rear passages 9 and 10. Steam is therefore prevented from being gathered and re-applied to other areas where it is not necessary and it is also removed from the material rather than being pressed into it as occurs with a flat plate. The remaining flat area of the bottom plate 6, which area is much greater than the area of indentation, is used to do the actual smoothing and pressing.

It will be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of the illustrative device since they may be variously modified without changing the purpose of the invention.

I claim:

1. A laundry iron having a base plate with a planar bottom surface having an indentation therein, and venting passage means inside and entirely above the bottom surface of the base plate, said venting passage means connecting said identation to the atmosphere at a side of said base plate.

2. A laundry iron having a base plate with a planar bottom surface having a plurality of generally longitudinally extending identations therein which are separated by planar areas of substantial size, and venting passage means inside and entirely above the bottom surface of the base plate, said venting passage means connecting said indentations to the atmosphere at a side of said base plate.

3. A laundry iron having a base plate with a planar bottom surface having an indentation therein, and a venting bore inside and entirely above the bottom surface of the base plate, said venting bore extending continuously through the base plate and opening into said indentation so as to connect the indentation to the atmosphere at two upright margins of the base plate.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 210,551 Nixon Dec. 3, 1878 432,309 Hardinge July 15, 1890 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,830 Great Britain Feb. 10, 1885 

